Rebecca Balding

TV actress Rebecca Balding's career was punctuated by roles as newspaper reporters and editors. A flurry of work in the late 1970s began with her role as enthusiastic reporter Carla Mardigian on the "Mary Tyler Moore" spin-off "Lou Grant." Though she left the show after only three episodes, she quickly found the part of Corky Crandall opposite David Naughton on "Makin' It" in 1979. Unfortunately, the series fell flat, but in 1980 she appeared as Carol David, surrogate wife of Billy Crystal's character on the smash parody sitcom "Soap." Throughout the '80s and '90s, she found plenty of work in small roles on prime-time television, no doubt helped by her producer-director husband, James L. Conway; from roles on the cop drama "Cagney & Lacey" to the teen soap "Beverly Hills, 90210," Balding was never short of work. Her biggest part since "Soap" came when she landed the role of newspaper editor Elise Rothman on the sexy fantasy series "Charmed," alongside fellow TV mainstay Alyssa Milano. Rebecca Balding died on July 18, 2022 in Park City, UT at the age of 66.